Canada Won't Join in Military Strike on Syria

Canada reluctantly supports its allies on the need for Western military intervention in Syria but will not join in an attack, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.

"At the present time the government of Canada has no plans... to have a Canadian military mission," Harper said after recently speaking with his American, British, and French counterparts.

"Our government has been a very reluctant convert to the idea that there needs to be some Western military action regarding the Syrian situation," he said.

"We have been and remain concerned when we look at this conflict that it is overwhelmingly sectarian in nature and does not have at the present any ideal or obvious outcomes."

Harper added, however, that "the risks of the international community not acting in the face of what appears to be an escalation, and likely further escalation without action, into the use of chemical weapons as a weapon of warfare is an extremely dangerous precedent."

"This is a very big risk and... we do support our allies who are contemplating forceful action to deal with this."